The slides are mostly self-explanatory. However, I did omit an interactive diagram that describes the line of succession in case the office of the President becomes vacant (the diagram wouldn’t have displayed well on Slideshare). The contents of that omitted slide were as follows:

Should the position of President become vacant, the Vice-President shall assume the Presidency. In such a situation, the new President shall select a new Vice-President from Congress.

Should both the positions of President and Vice-President be vacant, the Senate President (or in his absence, the House Speaker) shall become the Acting President.

In the latter instance, Congress will have to draft procedures pertaining to how a President and Vice-President will be elected to fill the position.

Of course, these constitutional provisions regarding the Executive Branch merely describe things as they should be. Taking into consideration Philippine political culture, the dynamics surrounding the Presidency become all the more intriguing. With this in mind, I prepared the following slides (slightly updated) to impart as much to my students, drawing on material developed by respected scholars Alex Brilliantes and Randy David:

One final note: the Constitution actually presents the Legislative Branch of government prior to the Executive Branch, which was also how the faculty structured the syllabus of the class for which these slides were prepared. After all, the Philippines is a republican democracy, the cornerstones of which are representation and the rule of law. Yet with the 2010 Presidential elections but days away it seemed appropriate for me to post these slides instead.

[About Presentation Thursdays: Every now and then, on a Thursday, I post a presentation from my archives and include some accompanying commentary not just about the content but also my thoughts on designing it. The presentations can also be viewed and downloaded from my Slideshare page]